There are many arrow rests available today for an archer's needs, such as is indicated on pages 16 through 20 of the Martin Archery 1990 Catalog.
Arrow rests are typically attached to an archery bow for supporting an arrow before and during release. It is desirable for an archer to be able to adjust their arrow rest to align it with a drawn bowstring, and to adapt it to the shooting and aiming styles of the archer. It is most desirable to have the ability to adjust an arrow rest both vertically and horizontally with respect to the bow, for precision in aiming.
Another consideration in the design of an arrow rest is the absorption of the pressure exerted by the arrow in a sideward direction as the arrow is released. Initially upon release of the bow string, a tremendous driving force is applied to the rear end of the arrow. In theory, if the force is perfectly aligned with the axis of the arrow, with no induced horizontal or vertical forces, the arrow will maintain a nonbending, straight shaft during its initial flight. As a practical matter, it is impossible even for the most skilled archers to apply all of the bow force along the axis of the arrow. Invariably, both horizontal and vertical off-axis forces are applied which cause the arrow to bend or flex.
The degree of these off-axis forces depends in part upon how the bow string is released. It has been known for many years that when a person holds and releases the bow string with their fingers ("finger release"), the bow string rolls or slides of the fingers. This imparts a major lateral or horizontal force and a minor vertical force to the arrow, and causes the arrow to bend or bow in a horizontal plane during its initial flight. As such, the arrow initially goes through a series of alternating left and right bowing or flexing motions. This alternating horizontal bowing is commonly referred to as "archer's paradox." The action of the fletching ultimately stabilizes the arrow flight and eliminates the bending oscillations of the shaft. The "archer's paradox" phenomenon has a material impact on arrow flight, arrow speed, shot repeatability and correspondingly the accuracy of the shot.
To reduce the effects of "archer's paradox," various well known devices are utilized at the bow sidewall to engage the arrow shaft and provide lateral dampening of the horizontal arrow oscillations. Such devices are commonly referred to as pressure buttons or "burger" buttons. These are devices which thread into the hole of a bow handle, and project laterally into the bow window for engaging the side of an arrow shaft. Such are shown by way of example on pages 16-20 of the Martin Archery 1990 catalog. The position of the side pressure buttons is determined by the position of the hole on the bow handle.
The vertical component of an off-axis force imparted to the end of an arrow upon bow string release induces vertical oscillations in the initial flight of an arrow. These vertical oscillations are sometimes referred to as "porpoising". Mechanical releases are known to reduce "archer's paradox", increase arrow speed, and thus increase shot accuracy. However, mechanical releases are also known to tend to increase arrow porpoising as compared to finger release. To accommodate such porpoising, launcher-type arrow rests have been developed, such as is shown and described in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,716, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
It would be desirable to provide an arrow rest having greater adjustability and one which is adaptable to be used by both finger and mechanical release shooters.